Man, I wish I was beautiful

Ages ago I asked for help on Twitter/Facebook for help with my dead WD My Passport.

It was password protected, and I forgot the password. After 3 attempts it locked and only gave me the option of reformatting it. Which I did.

The format didn't complete correctly though and now it's dead. Any ideas on how I can get it working again? Yes, I know people already answered this question once, but it was ages ago, I didn't have a crack at it at the time and now I've totally forgotten what I was told to do.

Edited to add: By "dead" I mean my computer won't acknowledge when the thing is plugged in. At all.

I know I'm not popular enough to win. Which kinda defeats the point of the comp really: Those with crappy lives who can't afford holidays are often those who'll never win a popularity contest, which is what this is.

Benefits and Work sent me the following e-mail. They're looking for 1000 people to sign up before they start hardcore campaigning, in order that there are enough people on board to make a different. I think their campaign is massively important, given the serious threat to our DLA/AA and other benefits.

DLA was established, after years of research, because the costs of living as a disabled person in a barrier-filled world organized by and for non-disabled people were considered to be so high. The estimated costs of disability that came out of this research were far, far higher than what is actually now given to DLA claimants. It was also emphasised that DLA should not be means-tested, because the costs of disability are high whether a person is extremely poor or generally has enough to live on.

Yet the government is proposing either means-testing DLA and AA, or removing it altogether. Their proposal to put the money in the hands of local councils is TERRIFYING, especially to those of us who have experienced first-hand the way that council-funded care has been limited, cut and removed from a majority of disabled people. Councils would leave DLA claimants without enough money either to fund their care or to cover their disability-related costs. The end result of this could well be the death of the poorest disabled people. Do we want to live in a society where the richest are subsidised to the tune of millions (HBOS et al), while the poorest people with the highest costs are left without enough money to fund their care, to support their mobility needs or potentially even to eat?

Benefits and Work's e-mail, detailing their campaign, is copied below. They have 300 people signed up to the campaign so far. Help them get to 1000, and then we can start campaigning.

Ideas for smaller-scale campaigns to support this one could be thought up and discussed here, too...________________________________________________________________

Claimants have just 100 days to prevent their DLA and AA being abolished.

A government green paper has revealed proposals to stop paying ‘disability benefits, for example, attendance allowance’’ and hand the cash over to social services instead.

Under the plan, current claimants would have their disability benefits converted to a ‘personal budget’ administered by local authorities and used to pay for services,– not to spend as they wish.

Once the green paper consultation period ends in 100 days time, if an almighty row has not been raised, it is likely that both major political parties will see the lack of outrage as a green light to end both DLA and AA.

We’re looking for a minimum of 1,000 claimants, carers and support workers to join our campaign to save these benefits from being abolished. Find out how you can take part from this link:

We know that many people will take false comfort from the fact that, unlike AA, DLA is not specifically named as being for the axe. But if the government was planning only to abolish AA it is extremely unlikely that they would refer constantly throughout the green paper to ‘'disability benefits'’, a term which includes not just AA but also DLA.

Others will dismiss this as just another idle discussion document and our concerns as scare mongering. But it’s much more than that.

36 meetings have already been organised around the country for people working in government and the caring professions to meet to be told about the setting up of a new National Care Service which would oversee the system. In addition, a stakeholders panel of more than 50 voluntary sector organisations, trades unions and academics has been established to offer advice to the government.

Some organisations and individuals, such as RNIB and welfare rights worker Neil Bateman writing for Community Care magazine, have already voiced their alarm.

But not every disability organisation is opposed to the proposals and some even agree with them.

In a press release, Disability Alliance has welcomed the publication of the green paper and said that it ‘looks forward to working alongside Government and all the other stakeholders in bringing these plans into fruition.’ They have even said that they agree that there is a case for ‘integrating disability benefits such as attendance allowance’ into the new system.

One thing everyone does seem to agree on is that huge cuts in public spending will have to take place in the next few years as a result of the credit crunch and global recession.

Political parties are desperately looking for the softest targets to be the victims of these cuts. Dismissing the green paper’s proposals as hot air and not worth worrying about could be the costliest mistake you ever make.

Find out more about the proposed abolition of DLA and AA and how you can join our campaign to fight back:

Please sign. Without my DLA I'd be practically housebound, unable to afford supermarket deliveries and would pretty much have no quality of life at all. Also bear in mind that most people develop some kind of impairment in old age; Attendance Allowance, a benefit for over 65s who need assistance, is currently the benefit at the top of the "at risk" list. So signing this petition isn't just for those who are currently claiming, signing is an investment for your own future!

While I no longer post publically in my LJ, I now keep a blog which you are welcome to read, and you can even view the xml feed of it on your LJ friends page by adding lisybabesblog to your friends list.

I started it with the intention of trying to write something funny every day.

I failed.

But today, someone I don't know told me they find it hilarious. They clearly have little humour in their lives.

If you wish to comment on it, it might be better to do it on the blog itself, rather than on the syndicated feed, because I'm assuming when the entries go from the feed, that the LJ post relating to the entry goes into cyberspace with it.

It was meant to be my personal diary, read by a few friends or whatever. It was brought to my attention today how widespread the readship of it is, and I'm not comfortable with my personal thoughts, experiences and rants being read so broadly. And so I think this is best to protect the confidentiality of myself and the people around me.

I'm going through and removing all the entries from being accessible to the public, though for the time being, I plan to keep the journal account open so I can read posts made by my friends, though once I've gone through the last two years worth of diary entries and printed the things I want to keep, I may delete the account completely.